10 Dreamy New Books To Cosy Up With This Winter

Make room in your handbag this season for the most witty, moving and powerful new reads to hit the bookshelves. The Girly Book Club's Erin Woodward gives us her rundown of the top 10 titles...

The Girly Book Club just loves new books that have yet had the stamps of approval from the outside literary powers that may be. We like to get in early and start the hype. So as the air begins to chill and the light begins to fade, check out our list of 10 books that will make staying in that much more agreeable…

1. Indiscretion by Charles Dubow
Gatsby Gatsby Gatsby… Charles Dubow’s book Indiscretion, although likely a coincidence, was well timed to come out around the reawakening of the Gatsby era. You’ll likely draw parallels between Harry, Maddy, Daisy and Gatsby himself but the one that proves the most evident is Nick and Walter. It’s by no means a reproduction of a well-loved classic, but rather provides the reader with a familiar, perhaps cooler friend who will take them on a roller coaster ride. A new twist every chapter keeps the reader on their toes while they slowly come to love the flawed protagonist.

2. How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff
World War 3 is upon us – or at least it seems that way. This futuristic novel tells the story of Daisy, who is sent over to live with her cousins in England after her father remarries and is too enwrapped in his new life to deal with his old. Daisy immediately falls in love with her cousin Edmund, which is the first turn toward the bizarre, and it continues as the war rages on with bloodshed and social circumstances that mirror the Great Depression. A very inspired and surprisingly easy story to read. It’s also going to be a major motion picture, so make sure you read the book first.

3. Letter From Skye by Jessica Brockmole
This is an entire book written in letter format between six characters spanning two world wars. The letters begin between Elsbeth and David, an American writing to his favourite author to compliment her on her wonderful poetry. The fallout from this first letter is more than one could ever expect or conceive. An impossible love story that tears families apart. Beautifully written as if the author were a poet herself.

4. The Light Between Oceans by ML Stedman
How would you feel if you couldn’t have children? Now imagine yourself on a very small island where just you and your lighthouse keeper husband live. Then, a baby arrives. Granted, it comes in a boat with a dead man, but in this little miracle lies an answer to your prayers. Knowing nothing about the baby, could you blame a woman who believed the baby was meant for her, even sent to her? The story of Elizabeth and Tom on Janus in Australia is a cruel tale of loss, deception and finally redemption. But at what price?

5. Silver Star by Jeanette Walls
An eloquent and gifted story teller, Jeanette Walls has just released her third novel. Her first novel, memoir The Glass Castle is easily my favourite book of all time. Her distinctive tone is picked up once again in Silver Star and helps connect readers to its characters.

6. Wild by Cheryl Strayed
Wild is the true story of Cheryl Strayed and her journey to self realisation. Having lost her mother way too early and with her marriage crumbling around her, she sets out on a three-month trek across one of the most intrepid trails in the world – The Pacific Coast Trail, which crosses the USA from Mexico to Canada. It’s her sheer stupidity and in the end, her accomplishment, that makes you cheer her along at every step. A absolute essential read – very Eat, Pray, Love without the romance – or eating.

7. Wool by Hugh Howey
The world has ended. The air we’ve breathed for so long is now poisonous and the remaining habitants of earth as we know it live in Silos, protected from the dangerous elements. Wool, a trilogy reminiscent of The Hunger Games will have you guessing the end of every page.

8. The Fault In Our Stars by John Green
If you’re having a bad day I wouldn’t suggest you pick up this little gem up. It’s not exactly a feel good book… might make you want to crawl back into bed. Hazel, a terminal cancer patient meets Augustus at a Cancer Support meeting – and yes guess what, he also has cancer. It was never going to end well. But a coming of age story where we follow Hazel as she experiences her first love while undergoing the complications of a very difficult disease. A quick read that makes me look forward to Green’s next book.

9. Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg
Want to have it all? Sheryl Sandberg’s nonfiction novel Lean In addresses just that. As COO of Facebook, there is a fair bit of credence in what she says. Taking antidotes from her own life, Sheryl takes us along on her struggle to sit at the big boys’ table. The result is practical and implemental rules we can all follow. An inspirational read.

10. 12 Tribes Of Hattie by Ayana Mathis
Mathis’ debut novel is an evocative read – if you read the reviews first, you’ll find her compared to the likes of Toni Morrison and can’t help but pick it up with a certain amount of expectation. Each chapter examines another one of her children’s lives as they meet varying degrees of success and failure. The book opens in the 1920s, where we meet 17-year-old Hattie, who lives in Philadelphia with her twin babies. It’s a story about racism, loss and the complexity of family relationships. You’ll be hooked.

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